


Smiles From Juran

by Anxiety_Elemental



Category: Warframe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 02:55:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16008812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anxiety_Elemental/pseuds/Anxiety_Elemental
Summary: You half-expect Umbra to just smash the instrument





	Smiles From Juran

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for The Sacrifice.
> 
> Just a quick little drabble. Trying second person because 1) trying something different 2) didn't feel like developing a Tenno just for a 500 word drabble. Also I know nothing about music, sorry in advance.
> 
> Hope you like!

In the Cetus market, you see something that looks a lot like your old shawzin.

 

(Except it wasn’t yours, you have to remind yourself. Some days it’s harder to remember that.)

 

It’s not quite the same. It’s a slightly different shape and its styled differently, painted wood rather than gilded metal, but it has the same number of strings and is about the same size.

 

“Ah, does our Tenno have a taste for music?” the shopkeeper asks when she notices you staring, “We also offer lessons at all levels for the aspiring musician!”

 

You shake your head and indicate no, no just the instrument today, thank you.

 

-*-

 

When you return to the Liset, you find Umbra sitting on the floor next to your kavat, who is asleep. (Umbra had not liked the kavat at first, though you were not sure if Umbra didn’t like animals or something else upset him. You are glad to see even this small improvement.) 

 

As you approach, shawzin in hand, Umbra looks up, and seems to freeze when he spots the shawzin. You hold it out to him.

 

You half-expect Umbra to just smash the instrument, destroy an ugly reminder of his past, but instead he takes it gentle from yours hands. He holds it in his lap at first, looking down at it. He runs a hand along it, metal against wood. He has no expression to read, you cannot tell what he is thinking.

 

Umbra shifts so he has the fretboard in one hand and the other on the body. Umbra picks a string, making one bright, clear note. He plays two more, two more notes ring out. He tries two others, but this time they clash, harsh and grating. Umbra growls as he plucks the strings again, making another discordant twang. He taps his fingers against the shawzin, growls low, then tries the chords again.

 

You sit down next to him, and Umbra either doesn’t notice or doesn’t mind. You are curious. (You worry about him.)

 

It takes a little while, but soon the notes begin to take real shape, noise into song, shattered pieces into something harmonious. Umbra still struggles, he’ll stop and go back when he makes a mistake, repeat a failed section of the song. And though you see his hands tighten around the shawzin and he still growls when he makes mistakes, he doesn’t stop, keeps trying. Whether it is old muscle memory or if he is truly beginning to recall how to play you aren’t sure. You hope it helps.

 

You do not know the song he plays.

 

(You wonder if Isaah did.)


End file.
